Mischief in the Stars

What Comes Next

Rory watched as the brown-skinned girl stared blankly at the wall. Eira had been struggling immensely to come to terms with everything that happened. No one really knew how to help her. They'd all been trying to break through to her, and even Eliphas had tried to get her to yell something snarky at him. But there was nothing. She didn't want their help; she just kept saying she wanted things to go back to how they were. Being a pyrave went against her very existence. Rory vaguely thought back to her conversation with her friend just a few hours ago.

"Is there... anything I can do, Eira?" Rory pleaded desperately, wanting nothing more than to help her friend.

"Any chance you can manipulate the memory and reverse everything?" Eira asked with a straight face. Rory didn't say anything. They had talked about doing this before. But they knew that Rory wouldn't be able to get out of another life sentence. Besides, they weren't sure what else could be reversed should they go back. "I didn't think so."

"I'm so sorry, Eira. If you need anything... just let me know, okay? I'm here for you," Rory told her sternly, giving her a comforting smile. Eira paused, deep in thought for a moment.

"Well... there actually is one thing."

That was how they got here.

Eira's sister blinked once.

"Hi... I'm Rory," she began nervously. The frantic girl shook slightly, spastically looking around.

Eira had always mentioned how her sister, Maeve, talked about how she wasn't from here. She said that no one ever believed her, and it drove her to near insanity. Now, Maeve spent her days alone, muttering about how she needed to go back. Once Rory heard this, she offered the idea that she might be from Earth, that the coven brought her here for some reason.

"I'm not from here either, you know," Rory blurted out, making the girl stop her muttering.

"You're... what?"

"I'm not from here," she repeated slowly.

"You're not..."

"...from here," Rory finished gently, sitting down next to her on the bed. "I'm from somewhere called Earth, do you remember where you're from?"

"Yes! Earth, that's where I'm from!" Maeve ranted out excitedly, sitting up in her bed. Eira watched in disbelief; she hadn't seen her sister coherent in months.

"It's quite different here, isn't it?" Rory began with an amused smirk. "The animals, the powers, the-"

"Lack of any sort of technology? That was a weird one for me! And the fact that I don't recognize anyone, did you? When did you get here?" she babbled, and Rory couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "I have so many questions for you!"

"There is certainly a lot for us to discuss..." she agreed kindly, gently taking Maeve's hand in her own, "but first, I just need to check something, is that all right with you?" Maeve nodded hesitantly, letting her hand go slack. Rory gave her a reassuring smile before closing her eyes and focusing.

Maeve stood calmly as snow fell around her.

She gently flicked her hand, the snow moving in coordination with her hands. A small smile graced her face as the snow followed her every command. Tiny white lights floated under her skin as she moved. Maeve seemed to notice the lights underneath her skin, a full grin spreading across her features as she admired the beautiful lights.

Being a Haunani, it made sense she could control the snow, but she wasn't sure. When Rory realized she was brought from Earth, she was worried that the coven found another oracle that they wanted to bring here. Rory wondered if they did some sort of test run with someone else, worried it wouldn't initially work. The thought angered Rory. It meant the coven killed another innocent person on Thera and stole this girl's life.